Lynda Sayce's theorbo site

Photo by David Levene, by kind permission of Philip Tennant. Theorbo by David Van Edwards.

One of Britain's leading lutenists with over 100 recordings to her name, Lynda Sayce read Music at St Hugh's College, Oxford, then studied lute with Jakob Lindberg at the Royal College of Music. She performs regularly as soloist and continuo player with leading period instrument ensembles worldwide, is principal lutenist with The King's Consort, Ex Cathedra and the Musicians of the Globe, and has broadcast extensively on radio and TV. She is also director of the lute ensemble Chordophony, whose repertory and instrumentarium is based exclusively on her research. Equally at home working with modern instruments, Lynda has performed with many leading orchestras and opera companies including English and Welsh National Operas, Opera North, the CBSO and the Berlin Philharmonic. Her repertory spans many centuries, and her discography ranges from some of the earliest surviving lute works to the jazz theorbo part in Harvey Brough's 'Requiem in Blue'.

An experienced teacher at all levels, Lynda writes beginners' lute lessons for the British lute society, has taught on many summer schools and courses, and is regularly invited to serve as specialist examiner by both universities and music conservatoires. She is currently preparing a didactic recording and companion edition of lute duets, commissioned by the lute society.

Lynda has written for Early Music, the New Grove Dictionary of Music, and the art journal Apollo. She contributed texts on the plucked instruments to the new musical instrument catalogue of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. She holds a Ph.D (Open University, 2001) for her research on the history of the theorbo, which is being prepared for publication.

A keen photographer, she has also worked with cutting-edge digitization equipment, for the Oxford-based Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music, and the Alamire Foundation at Leuven University, making use of her expert knowledge of early notations and her extensive experience of handling important musical manuscripts. Many thousands of her manuscript photographs are now on the websites of these institutions and of various libraries, providing unparalleled source access to music scholars worldwide.